Poor cat

The cat has had a terrible time the last week or so. She hates all the fireworks and has spent a lot of time hiding under the spare bed. Finally persuaded her to go out in the garden this afternoon but I'm sure she didn't trust me. I know it was Diwali last weekend so more reason for fireworks but honestly, this seems to last a whole fortnight every year now.

Friday night I was out with work colleagues. Our longest serving employee is leaving. His new wife has a job with an NGO in Cambodia so he's going out there with her. One of the things I like about my work place is occasions like Friday when you realise how unusual it is that you can get such a huge proportion of the whole work force in the same pub for a 'do'. It's a wonderful, friendly, sociable culture. There must have been 40+ people in the pub for this chap's leaving do, not including ex-colleagues who came along too. I perhaps had one (or two) pints more than was strictly sensible for my bike ride from the station home, but I'd stopped drinking about an 90 minutes earlier, so I must have been nearly sober by then...

Saturday morning was the small marathon. What a fabulous event. Thirteen people did all or part of the distance. Four did the full 26andabit, another five did 20+, and there were even a couple of youngsters who did the last 4. The weather was good, the drinks stations were in place, course photographers were on their bikes. It wasn't about the time but coming up with the idea, designing the route and doing it. Brilliant. There are some photos on the interweb. There's talk of doing it again, perhaps a week or two after VLM as a local, club-based run for those who don't get into the 'only' marathon. People wouldn't even have to start at the same place, just do the course on the same day. Let's hope it doesn't become too popular!

On my way to set-up the drinks station, I came across the Bushy Park parkrun. Hundreds of people. The whole parkrun thing started in Bushy Park in 2004 with just 13 runners. Now you can't get away from people running around 5k routes, on a Saturday morning. All for free, run by volunteers. Big Society anyone?

My new team at work is settling in well. The temps are both recent graduates and it's such a relief to be able to give them some half-baked instruction like "Oh write back, say thank you, apologise, say we'll sort it out bla bla" and they do it, no problem! They are a contrast though, one always smiley the other seems to need an enthusiasm tablet at times! I don't think she's not enthusiastic, it's just that it doesn't come through. She has one of those voices that sounds a bit bored, a bit oh-this-is-all-too-much. We'll get it sorted, no worries! Perhaps doing the initial stocking up of the 'top draw' which contains the Christmas incentive scheme will help. Oh yes, it involves chocolate, biscuits, chocolate, savoury snacks and, chocolate. 3pm turns into a very special time of day :D

Shock news headline "NHS helpful". So I rang up and admitted I'd lost my blood test barcode and was put through to bloods clinic. They said "That's ok, come along and we can look it up on the system!" [THUD]